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Health risk of residents dwelling around e-waste recycling zones has been a global concern, but has not been adequately examined. The present study was intended to evaluate the potential health risk of residents through inhalation exposure to size-fractionated particle-bound heavy metals in a typical e-waste recycling zone, South China. Anthropogenic metals (Zn, Se, Pb, Sb, As, and Cd) were predominantly enriched in fine particles ( D p < 1.8 μm), whereas the crustal elements (Ti, Fe, and Co) tended to accumulate in coarse particles ( D p > 1.8 μm). Although the daily inhalation intakes of the target metals were significantly lower than those through food consumption and ingestion of house dust, the hazard quotients of total metals for adults (95% CI: 1.0–5.5) and children (95% CI: 3.0–17) were greater than 1. Moreover, the incremental lifetime cancer risks of five carcinogenic metals (Cr, Co, Ni, As, and Cd) for adults and children were 1.3 × 10 −3 (95% CI: 4.1 × 10 −4 –3.0 × 10 −3 ) and 3.9 × 10 −3 (95% CI: 1.3 × 10 −3 –8.6 × 10 −3 ), respectively, substantially higher than the acceptable cancer risk range of 10 −6 –10 −4 . All these findings suggested that health risks were high for local residents dwelling around the e-waste recycling zone through inhalation exposure to particle-bound heavy metals, for both adults and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric size-fractionated particles were collected at different heights in an e-waste recycling zone (QY) and urban Guangzhou (GZ), China and analyzed for organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs). The total air concentrations of eight OPFRs were 130 ± 130 and 138 ± 127 ng m −3 in QY and GZ, respectively. Compositional profiles of chlorinated OPFRs were different between QY and GZ, but the size distribution patterns of all OPFRs were not significantly different at different heights. Estimated atmospheric deposition fluxes of OPFRs were 51 ± 67 and 55 ± 13 μg m −2 d −1 in QY and GZ, respectively, and the coarse particles ( D p > 1.8 μm) dominated both the dry and wet deposition fluxes. Moreover, not all particle-bound OPFRs were inhalable and deposited in the human respiratory tract. The calculated inhalation doses of OPFRs were much lower than the reference doses, suggesting that potential health risk due to inhalation exposure to particle-bound OPFRs in the e-waste recycling zone and urban site was low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]